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Night Journey (after Tu Fu)

This is not a translation, but rather a version, my “take” on a famous Tu Fu poem. I claim no abilities in translation, neither speak nor read Chinese, and instead depend upon the skills of those who have ventured into these difficult reaches. This is where the poem carries me, a middle-aged Texas hill county dweller, in the Year of the Horse, 2014.

Night Journey (after Tu Fu)

Wind bends the grass along the road.
A lonely truck passes by.
Stars reach down to touch these hills
and the moon drifts behind.

No one will ever know my poems.
I am too old and ill to work.
Circling, floating, who am I
but a vulture looking down.

Here’s a literal translation of the piece (or so I believe), found on chinese-poems.com:

Your response to Tu Fu’s poem has spurred me to respond to both your and his poems on this rainy morning. I’m not a poet and I haven’t edited this but I know if I stop to edit, I’ll never share it! So from a Canadian urban dweller, living in a city with two official languages:

It is good to see poems inspired by Du Fu – yours have such imagery, sound and rhythm that you owe little, other than inspiration, to him. Of course, that inspiration is what we all long for. I believe you are successful in evoking his spirit 🙂